brianmc

There should be a fine arts forum for painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, fibers, fine art photography, new genres, public arts etc. ...and then a separate one for design and applied visual arts like graphic design, illustration, interior design, industrial design, product design, environmental design.

@intelly: I like your work. Some of them are very amusing and made me laugh (in a good way). Your prints look really nice too. Where are you applying?

Thanks. Guston's late work has always been a HUGE influence. He changed the face of painting. I definitely see The Oblongs comparison. I've seen Superjail, but can't remember it that vividly. I love cartoons for adults and cartoonlike paintings. I think the backgrounds on Sponge Bob are gorgeous too.

Thanks for the heads up on Mason Gross. I ended up only applying to Towson this year. It's not a U.S. News top pic for art, but the head of the Grad Program there used to teach printmaking at MICA when I was there and students in that department really seemed to think a lot of her. Also, I really really want to move back to Baltimore. I'm sort of marginal in how I fit into the art world and there is no better place on Earth to be marginal than Baltimore, MD.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianmcart/ Don't laugh, I'm marginal.

Anybody apply to Towson University in Maryland?

John, I would love more feedback on Delaware. By the size of the facilities, do you mean overall, or the actual grad studios? Also what faculty do you like? I've heard great things about Lance Winn, and I've met Bob Straight before. Did you ever work with Peter Williams? I'm wondering what he's like as faculty. I know he's been in the Whitney Biennial, but is he a good teacher? I'm kind of excited by Delaware because they've made efforts to build their program in recent years by recruiting guys like Peter Williams and opening the space in Northern Liberties in Philly. Newark will never be the center of the Art world, but neither will any of the other towns where other programs I'm interested in are located. I'm only about 20 miles from U of D now. It would be an easy transition. I could keep my bartending gig one night a week for a little spending money.

Rutgers has a pretty healthy reputation. Definitely see if you can get some money out of them this year. I am thinking of applying there for painting. The Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia is a public school as well, that you may want to consider. Philly is only about two hours from NYC and is a really cool town and somewhat cheaper than NY. Also, I've heard that the University of Delaware funds about 70% of their grad art students with either tuition remission or TA positions that offer a stipend. U of D is about 45 minutes from Philly and an hour from Baltimore, about two hours to NY and DC. I'm probably applying to those three along with the University of Maryand and Towson University in Baltimore, both of which would be in-state tuition for me. Your photos look great. The landscapes are beautiful. You guys have an amazing view of the sky out there. Love the photo of the Zipper too.

Nathan, I really don't think shelling out a ton of money for a private education in art is worth it. There are some good public universities that take their art programs very seriously and they pay pretty well to get good faculty. It is far too big of a risk to go deeply in debt for a private college, when you run the risk of getting there and finding out that you don't like your instructors at all. I graduated from MICA as an undergrad. I transferred in as a junior and had a great junior year and made some good breakthroughs as we had the opportunity to do independent work and it was my fourth year of art school and second doing my own work. My senior year was a whole different story. I had faculty who I found kind of discouraging because they didn't "get" what I was trying to do. I edited my work so much for them, that by mid-year I didn't enjoy making it anymore and didn't even consider graduate school. I didn't paint for almost a year after school and then only sporadically for about six years. I did eventually renounce everything they said to me and adopted a "who cares what anybody thinks, it's my art" attitude and have been painting regularly for a couple of years now. I am thinking about grad school after ten years off, and for some reason I feel resistant to the idea of applying to Yale or any other top programs because I don't want to go somewhere that has an attitude that they know what good art is. I don't claim to, but I do know when I go gallery hopping or look at work online, that about 90% of what I see doesn't interest me at all. That doesn't make it bad. I, like most people, tend to gravitate towards work similar to my own, but I am terrified of landing in a grad program where they try to change me. The instructors are the artists of today, and they may be in tune with what is going on in galleries and museums, but we are the artists of tomorrow. If our generation is going to make important art then we can't really place too much importance on what the status quo thinks. You could go to the cheapest college you can find and as long as there are other students there that are passionate about creating and the facilities are adequate, you can have a wonderful grad experience. At least that is how I feel. As far as business contacts and referrals from faculty, I don't know how that works. Essentially, you are competition to your faculty members for all of the jobs and exhibition opportunities. Sure curators and gallery owners come into some of the top programs and occasionally choose to represent grad students that they find, but if your work is what they are looking for there are other ways to put it in front of them. I don't think that opportunity is worth $100,000. You wouldn't spend $100,000 on a lottery ticket. And then there are the TA positions, which are just a joke at private art colleges. I had TAs and they didn't do anything. They may chime in during critique, but that is about it. Parent's who are paying over $30,000 a year in tuition don't want students teaching their spoiled children. Major universities will utilize you as a TA much more. You may even find yourself teaching your own courses. What state are you a resident of anyway? I would consider the larger universities there for in-state tuition. Of course, still apply to your dream schools, you never know, you might get a full ride, but don't just apply based on what U.S. News and World Report says. What the hell do they know? And keep in mind that private colleges are a business. The more they give in scholarships, the less profit they make. Most businesses don't like less profit. I'm sure they have to give away some in order to ask for donations from alumni and to get grants from the states and federal government. Just something to chew on.

I would second the Indiana University and NY Academy for representational painting. I have seen former classmates of mine's work online who attended each of those schools and their work looks great. Also, they are both teaching at the college level. The one that ended up at NYAA also was interviewing with Boston University, so that may be a good one too. I went to MICA as an undergrad and had Timothy App for a class. He is currently the head of Hoffberger at MICA. He's a geometric abstractionist and seemed pretty closed to other things. Full disclosure: he was teaching an abstract painting class when I had him. (I think he bumped up my B+ to an A because I went and got him a coffee the last week of class.) But he never seemed to get too excited about anything else. He seems like an pretty intelligent guy, but he can come off as snide and might be discouraging. But I never had a crit with him for my personal work. On the other hand, for anyone doing abstraction, I've overheard him giving crits to fellow students and he's really into that. He admired my blank canvases for how nicely built they were more than my narrative work. My work floats somewhere on the fence between abstraction and representation. I pretty much paint straight from my imagination using little reference so my work ends up being pretty ham-fisted and cartoony. But that's what I get excited about. I love Phillip Guston and Carrol Dunham. If anyone wants to look at my work go to www.myspace.com/brianmcartist If you know of a school that might be good for me, I'd love some input on this seemingly endless research. Best of luck to everyone.

I'm right there with you. I've been out of school bartending for 10 years and stacking work against the wall when I get it done. I have no time to network or attend openings because I always have to work when those things are going on.

Haha, I applied to one grad program five years ago. Just one, but I had met a few of the faculty and they liked my work, and oh yeah, my mom had recently gotten a job as the secretary for the department. Well, long story short, I got a letter saying, we regret to inform you that we cannot accept your application for admission at this time because your file is incomplete...my letters of recommendation hadn't all shown up. I feel your pain. That was discouraging enough that I haven't even bothered to apply again until now. At least I know who not to ask for recommendations this time around. Too bad my mom has moved on to a different department in the university.

How much weight do schools put on your resume? I've been out of school for 10 years and haven't shown. I have new work from 2008-09. I will probably include a few pieces that are 5 or 6 years old in my portfolio, but no student work. But I have made no effort whatsoever to show. Should I even bother to apply for 2010? Do I stand a chance? I have very strong transcripts from a reputable undergrad program and I think my portfolio shows direction even if I haven't quite gotten the work where I want it. I need time to focus to do that. That is why I want to go back to school. I'm considering the University of Maryland, University of Delaware, Towson University (Baltimore), and Tyler, maybe American University in DC. I would love any feedback on those schools or any others in the mid-atlantic region.

These forums have been very informative. I personally have an undergraduate degree from a top ranked "art school" and refuse to pay that kind of money for graduate school. My senior year there was very discouraging because I was involved in a pilot program where I was constantly being challenged to defend my work in relation to critical readings that we were doing for this 9 credit independent program. I was in no way a slacker, I graduated with the fourth highest GPA of 160 seniors, but I am a painter with a narrative quality to my work and that didn't fit what was going on in the pages of whatever art rag the faculty was photocopying for us to read that week. I guess what I want to say in this forum is that there are some really good public programs that are ranked right up there with the expensive art schools. I'm guessing that most large public universities have a decent program regardless of ranking. Afterall if you are seeking your MFA you already have some direction to your work, what you really need is TIME. Time to focus, the ability to spend a whole day or whole week working, not just an hour before bed or before work. A good mentor would be great, but that can be difficult to access. Their isn't a lot of information on faculty at a lot of schools. Sometimes you can see a few images, but rarely can you understand their philosophy or motivation as an artist. I would love to study with Carrol Dunham, but I don't think I could afford to go to Columbia even if it was free. The cost of living in NYC without a job is absurd. I lived there and had to leave because I couldn't afford it even with a job. And I never finished a single painting when I was there because I was too busy trying to earn money. If enough talented students hold out and take a chance on some public programs, the good faculty members will follow. The benefits are probably better at a state funded university than at a private art college and many of them probably offer retirement plans similar to that of other state workers. Eventually more and more state/public programs can become "top schools". Another benefit is that you will have more opportunities to teach in a public program. Mommy and daddy don't want little Johnny getting instruction from a grad student when they are paying 32k a year in tuition. Don't sell your soul for a degree with the name of an expensive school on it. I have one and none of the patrons at the bar I tend seem to care. I'm not knocking private art colleges if you can afford it. They usually have the best facilities which will matter a lot more to you if you are a sculptor or printmaker than it does to me as a painter. All I need is a wall and a floor that isn't too nice to drip on. Most buildings have them. My private art college experience was very good in many respects. Ten years removed, I wish I hadn't been so stubborn and unwilling to learn marketable skills, but I still have a passion for making art that I feel I need to make whether it ever sells or not and that is still what I want to do. I'm going to stop ranting because I realize I have gotten way off the subject of this thread. Sorry!